


Board Games

by perfututum



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Minor Injuries, Post-Canon, Skateboarding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:22:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22729849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfututum/pseuds/perfututum
Summary: Roxas remembers something from his past.
Relationships: Axel/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 45





	Board Games

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elledriitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elledriitch/gifts).



> Happy Valentine's Day! A little later in the day than I'd have like to post this but! I made it lol. I hope you like it Elle! :)

_“I guess skateboarding is pass_ é _now.”_

Axel hadn’t thought anything of it when he’d heard some kid say it passing by, but Roxas visibly drooped. He couldn’t imagine why. They had just gotten their ice cream and were well on their way to the clocktower. He figured Roxas would just forget about it soon enough, but even after they’d settled on the tower’s ledge, his spirits didn’t lift. 

“What’s up, Roxas?” Axel prodded. “Your ice cream’s melting.”

Roxas, who had been staring listlessly into the sunset until that moment, noticed then that the sticky blue liquid was dripping down his wrist and rushed to lick it off. “Damn,” he hissed. 

“Heh.” Axel reached into his back pocket. “Here’s a napkin. But I find it’s more effective to eat it before that happens.”

“Yeah, well, not all of us can bite directly into our ice cream bars like some kind of mutant,” Roxas teased, but a frown still tugged at his lips. 

“It’s not a mutation, it’s a blessing,” Axel countered. “Surely your sensitive teeth aren’t what’s got you so down, though.” 

Roxas shot him a surprised look, as if Axel couldn’t read his moods like a book by now. “I’m not _down,”_ Roxas said, “I’m just--” A sigh. “I remembered something.”

Axel turned serious, his brow furrowing. That could have meant a number of things. Was Roxas having flashbacks to his days in the Organization? Axel wasn’t exactly confident that he was skilled enough to help a teenager process emotional trauma like that, and there was no way any of them could get therapists without sorely fucking up the World Order. 

Or worse, was Roxas remembering some of Sora’s memories again? Would that mean that he would have to return to Sora for a second time? Axel’s chest tightened at the thought. He’d _just_ gotten Roxas back. 

Before he could start panicking too much, Roxas tilted his head and said, “Axel?”

“Uh, yeah.” He cleared his throat. “What um, what did you remember?”

Roxas shifted. He almost looked ill. “It was from my time in the… _other_ Twilight Town.” 

Axel’s eyes widened. Aside from voicing his desire to befriend Hayner, Pence, and Olette, Roxas had never once brought up the digital Twilight Town. He could see why--the whole ordeal was downright inhumane. Sure, he’d gotten to be a normal teenager for a little while, but it had all been a lie. Maybe he was still sorting the real memories from the manufactured ones. 

He wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy. Or, maybe he would. But he was petty. “What did you remember?” Axel asked him carefully.

Roxas smiled wryly. “I used to skateboard.”

Well, that was new. “Oh. Yeah?” He wasn’t sure what to say. 

“Yeah, it was…” Roxas blew out a breath. “Amazing, actually. Exhilarating.”

Axel smiled. “I bet.” He didn’t know how Roxas would react to this, but he had to ask: “How did you learn?”

“Honestly? I have absolutely no idea.” He chuckled. “And now skateboarding is ‘passé,’ so I have all this skateboard knowledge and nothing to do with it. Skating through the plaza and kickflipping off the stairs… Stuff like that.” Then he shook his head. “It’s kinda silly.”

Axel clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You’re talking about what that kid said earlier? Pfft. What does he know?”

Roxas frowned again. “I didn’t see any skateboarders in town, did you?”

“Since when do you care what’s ‘passé’ and what’s not? You gotta know it doesn’t matter.” 

Roxas only shrugged. 

“Hey, you know what _I_ never see around here? Frisbees.”

Roxas snorted. “Okay, okay, I see where you’re going.”

“I don’t think you do.”

“Axel, please don’t give me The Talk about how cool frisbees are again,” he said in an even tone.

“Fine, as long as you get my point.” Axel squeezed his shoulder. “Now finish that ice cream.”

Roxas pursed his lips for a moment, then he made to stand. “Actually, I’m not really hungry anymore.” He offered Axel the stick. “You want it?”

Axel hesitantly took it from him. It wasn’t like Roxas to leave so early like this. “You sure?” 

“Yeah. I’ll see you at home.” So Roxas wanted to be alone.

Axel tried not to look too concerned. “Okay. See you.” He watched Roxas’s back as he turned the corner and made his way down the stairs, and he kept his eyes on him while he walked through the plaza and out of view. Roxas was slouching a little, his hands in his pockets. 

Axel hated that Roxas felt this way. Well, he hadn’t quite pegged down what exactly Roxas was feeling--sad, angry, pensive?--but he deserved only to be happy. Axel had known that from the day they first met. It hurt to think that maybe Roxas had been at his happiest in that fake town, with his fake friends and his fake memories. 

What was it he’d said about skateboarding? It was ‘exhilarating’? Axel took a bite of the ice cream and smiled.

He had an idea. 

∞

Finding a skateboard hadn’t been hard at all. Apparently, there were whole stores dedicated to the things. Unfortunately, he had _no_ clue which one to get. 

They lined the walls in all kinds of colors and patterns: _Mini Boards, Old School Boards, Cruiser Boards, Longboards…_ The hell did any of that mean?

A kid with a nametag and a lip ring approached him. “You look pretty overwhelmed.”

Axel rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I didn’t know there were so many kinds.”

“What’re you lookin’ for?” the kid asked. 

“Me? No idea. It’s a gift for my friend, but…” It was a long story he didn’t feel like telling. “Can you just point me to like, a regular skateboard?”

The kid grinned. “You said it’s a gift, right? What does he like?”

“Man, I dunno.” Was he a bad friend for not knowing? “He mentioned kickflips, I think.”

“Hmm.” The kid crossed his arms. “Follow me.” He led Axel to the corner of the store with the ‘old school boards’ and gestured to one of the sections. “I don’t have much to go on here, but these should do fine. See these rails? They’re called cheater sticks. Good for your friend to do tricks and shit without fucking up the paint too bad.”

Axel thanked the employee and set about picking out a design. He was starting to think he should have just brought Roxas here. But hey, he was best friends with the guy. He could find something Roxas liked. Right?

He was starting to feel a little discouraged, but then one of the boards caught his eye. It was shaped oddly for a skateboard, like it had wings jutting out of the sides. Unlike the others, this one had a pattern on the top of the board. It was solid white with black, bone-like etchings. It was pretty badass. 

He didn’t bother looking at the price tag. “Hey, uh, sir? I’ll take this one.”

∞

Axel was dying to see Roxas’s face as much as he was dreading it. Was this a great idea, or a horrible one? Would this make Roxas happy again, or would it just reopen old wounds?

But the store said no returns, so it was a little late to question his decision now. He unlocked the apartment door and stepped inside. He tried to awkwardly conceal the skateboard behind his back, but Roxas wasn’t in the living room to see it anyway. 

“Roxas?” he called. 

“In here,” Roxas responded from his room. Good, he was home, and his bedroom door was open. 

Axel grinned to himself. He carefully set the board down and pointed it toward the doorway. With the toe of his boot on the board, he silently counted, and on three he kicked the board straight into Roxas’s room.

It hit the wall with a _thud_ , and Axel waited. He heard Roxas shift, but beyond that, there was only silence. It was agonizing. He took a few cautious steps and peeked his head in the doorway.

Roxas was sitting upright on the edge of his bed, staring open-mouthed and unmoving at the skateboard. Axel still couldn’t get a read on him.

He chuckled nervously. “Uh… Do you like it?”

Roxas looked up at him wide-eyed, like he’d only just noticed Axel’s presence, then turned back to the board. He stood from the bed and knelt down, running his fingers over the patterns. “It’s… just like my old one,” he whispered.

_That_ was a surprise. “Really? The guy at the shop said it was a one-of-a-kind, so-- _oof!”_ He was cut off when Roxas darted over and knocked the wind out of him with a _ridiculously_ tight hug. “Oh,” he laughed out, wrapping his arms around Roxas. “So I don’t have to return it, then?”

“Don’t you dare,” Roxas said into his shoulder.

If Axel had known this would be Roxas’s reaction, he’d have done this months ago. “So hey, why don’t we take it for a spin? I wanna see your moves.”

Roxas pulled back and beamed up at him. “Really?”

“Uh, duh. This thing was expensive. Put your shoes on.”

∞

As it turned out, Roxas was crazy good on the board. It was the damnedest thing. Axel wondered if it had something to do with Ventus--Sora had no reason to know how to skateboard since he lived on a beach, and he doubted Ansem would have just given Roxas sick skateboarding skills for absolutely no reason. 

His gut twisted watching Roxas grind down the stairway railing, but he managed to _not_ actually break his neck. It was a joy to watch, though. The wind blowing his hair back, the smile plastered across his face--he was so free.

Eventually, Roxas skidded to a stop in front of him with a determined gleam in his eye. “Hey,” he said, stepping off the skateboard, “get on.”

Axel laughed out loud. “Yeah, that’s a good one, Rox.”

Roxas crossed his arms and grinned. Ah shit, he was serious.

“You have to be joking,” Axel protested. “I’ll actually die.”

“You don’t have to go down any stairs! Just get on, I’ll help you.”

Axel felt his face flush at the idea. It _was_ pretty hard to refuse with Roxas looking at him like _that._ “Fine, but I haven’t written my will yet, so you and Xion can just divide my shit amongst yourselves.”

Roxas rolled his eyes. “Just get on, you big baby.”

Axel pouted a little, but he knew he wouldn’t win. He pulled out a hair tie from his pocket and tied his hair back and stepped on the board--or, he tried to. He immediately wobbled side to side and stepped back off. “Okay, I tried it and I hate it. Why don’t you show me some more tricks? Do a backflip or something.”

“You only put one foot on the board!”

“It was one foot too many!”

Roxas groaned. “Here, I’ll hold the board down,” he said with a foot on the edge of the board. “Now get on.” 

Axel exhaled dramatically and got back on with both feet this time. He sincerely hoped nobody was watching them. “Okay… Now what?”

“Now push off the ground with your right foot.”

Axel gulped. “No.”

“‘No’?”

“I’m good right here."

_“Axel,”_ Roxas chastised, exasperated. 

Axel crossed his arms, albeit wobbling a little. “Haven’t you ever heard that phrase, ‘the taller they are, the harder they fall off of skateboards’?”

“That’s not how that goes. Just, here--” Roxas stepped in front of the skateboard and took hold of Axel’s hand. “Until you feel balanced enough,” he said, cheeks pink.

Roxas’s grip was gentle, but not so much that Axel would slip out of it. He began to walk backwards and pull, his eyes locked on Axel’s. Everyone else in the plaza disappeared; it was just him and Roxas. 

Roxas cleared his throat and broke eye contact. “Um, bend your knees a little. Yeah.” He loosened his grip a little but didn’t let go. “So now we’ll try and turn, just shift your weight a bit.” Axel flexed his ankles and leaned, and Roxas pulled him around in a half circle. This wasn’t so bad. _“Now_ can you try pushing off?” Never mind.

He _really_ didn’t want Roxas letting go of his hand any time soon, but something told him if he didn’t try this, he’d never get off this board. “Fine, fine. Make sure my frisbees go to a loving home.”

Roxas laughed. “You’re not gonna die! Promise.”

Maybe not, but he’d probably die of embarrassment. The lengths he’d go for Roxas… He lifted his right foot from the board and oh, so carefully pushed off the ground, propelling himself forward. 

“Again!” Roxas called behind him. “Keep it going!”

So he did. Aiming for the opposite barrier wall of the plaza, he pushed until he picked up to a respectable speed. He was kinda getting the hang of this. As long as he didn’t have to do any tricks. He pushed off again and--that wall was actually coming up on him pretty fast. 

“Look out!”

How was he supposed to turn again? Shit, _shit--_

He didn’t have time to remember to lean this way or that; one of the wheels caught on a deep groove in the pavement and launched him off the board. He braced himself, tumbled, and _fuck_ he scraped the shit out of his elbow. 

Roxas ran up to him and knelt at his side. “Are you hurt?”

“Just my pride,” Axel said pathetically with a hand over his eyes. He lifted up his bleeding arm. “And my elbow, I guess. Did anybody see me wipeout?”

Roxas began digging into his pockets. “I mean, yeah, it was pretty hard to miss.” He produced some peroxide wipes and a sizable band-aid. 

“You came prepared.” Axel narrowed his eyes. “Did you know this would happen?”

Roxas snorted. “Not to you, no. I wasn’t planning your demise. Neither of us have helmets or pads, so.” He took Axel’s arm and dabbed it with the wipe and--

“Yowch!” It stung like a _bitch._

“Stop wiggling!” Roxas tightened his grip and cleaned the wound. Axel never thought Roxas would be the one doing this--back in the Organization, it had always been the other way around when potions hadn’t been quite enough. But Roxas was older now, more mature. He’d been through so much. 

Roxas gently stuck on the bandage and rubbed his thumb over it a few times. “There,” he said softly, biting his lower lip. “Better?”

Axel swallowed. There were often times he was reminded of how much he truly admired Roxas--his courage, his loyalty--and this was one of those times. It usually happened on the occasions they were at eye level, like now. He almost forgot to respond. “Erm, yeah.” He flexed his arm for good measure. “Don’t even feel it,” he lied.

“Good,” Roxas said. Neither of them made to stand. They stayed there on the ground, each of them waiting for the other to move. But Axel didn’t want to. He wanted to keep this moment. 

Something in Roxas’s eyes changed. Axel wasn’t quite sure what--he searched them for an answer, but what he got was Roxas’s hand on the back of his neck and a firm kiss on the lips instead. 

Axel’s eyes bulged wide open in shock before quickly getting with the program, losing himself in the feeling of Roxas all over him. He opened his mouth, felt Roxas’s tongue brush against his and _where did he learn to do this so well?_

There must have been people staring at them by now, but this time Axel didn’t mind. While he wasn’t overly eager for rumors to start flying around, he’d happily deal with them if it meant he could keep doing _this._

Roxas pulled back, smiling and breathless. “Um, thanks for the skateboard.”

Axel laughed and kissed him again.

**Author's Note:**

> You notice how at the end of KH3 Roxas is Not playing with the frisbees?


End file.
